The move towards minimally invasive surgical (“MIS”) procedures for hip arthroplasty has begun and continues. To date, some of the proposed MIS procedures incorporate some similarities to the traditional open procedures. For example, posterior incisions and approaches may be used, the hip may still be dislocated during the bulk of femoral and acetabular preparation, the short external rotators may be dissected, or the gluteal muscles and in particular the gluteus medius and minimus may be dissected. In other words, the MIS methods still result in the dissection and disruption of important soft tissue; even if in an amount less than in conventional open techniques.
These similarities with traditional open methods resulted in MIS procedures that have similar post-operative results as open-methods, e.g., longer recovery times and increased dislocations. Thus, the only real benefit obtained by using these MIS techniques was the smaller incision. Accordingly, there is room for improvement within the art.